October 10, 2006

First Indian cartoonist in a mainstream newspaper?

Humor drawn from hardship

An American Indian cartoonist from Santo Domingo Pueblo will see his work grace the pages of ‘The New Mexican’ starting Monday
Ricardo Caté, from Santo Domingo Pueblo, is poised to be one of, if not the first, American Indian cartoonists to have his cartoons of Indian humor published daily in a mainstream newspaper. Already receiving accolades from various publications around the country and offers of national syndication, he says it's not about the fame or the glory but rather getting Indian humor to the mainstream public and showing Indian children they can be successful.

"I just draw the world as I see it," Caté said. "The cartoons are mostly Indian humor but I believe everyone can find truth and the humor in it."
Comment:  Here's a strip of four Caté cartoons, somewhat blurred.

I hope these are early versions of Caté's cartoons. I saw similar cartoons 10, 20, or more years ago.

For my version of Native-themed cartoons, see Political Cartoons 2000 and Political Cartoons 2001.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

little chief.....brummet echohawk 1960's tulsa ok....cartoon strip in ok papers for years

Rob said...

Okay, you may have something there. But which newspapers? I did say "mainstream" papers, right?

Roy Rogers said...

Ask the Chicago Art Institute who is probably the First Native American Cartoonist, and they will tell you it was Brummett Echohawk, who, during WWII, had cartoons published by Stars and Stripes Magazine...then in 1957, began the Little Chief cartoon strips for the Sunday Section of The Tulsa World-thru the 1960's.
This is not even to mention True West Magazine, or Desert Magazine...both in the late 50's and early 60's.